Filament handling apparatus



Oct. 10, 1961 DHUAINE J. DAVIS ETAL 3,003,716

FILAMENT HANDLING APPARATUS Filed Dec. 1'7, 195'? INVENTORS.

DHUAINE-J. DAVIS d MERWYN c. DAVIS ATTY.

United States Patent O 3,003,716 FILAMENT HANDLING APPARATUS Dhuaine J. Davis and Merwyn C. Davis, Wheaten, 111., assignors, by mesne assignments, to William L. Grey, Hartsdale, N.Y.

Filed Dec. 17,1957, Ser. No. 703,375 2 Claims. (Cl. 242,454)

This invention relates to filament tension and guide apparatus and is particularly applicable to the operation of winding coils of ultra fine diameter wire which must be removed from spools or reels.

In tension and guide apparatus which was known and used prior to this invention, it was customary to provide various arrangements whereby the wire could be freely removed from the spool and which further provided means for applying some degree of back tension on the wire before it was wound upon a coil form or bobbin. The back tension is needed to avoid the occurrence of intermittent slack and relatively high tension upon the wire which causes breakage of the wire. Tension means heretofore known generally consisted of a pad of felt or some similar soft friction material over which the wire was conducted, or a system of rotatable pulleys or wheels variously engaged by the wire.

In the winding of coils of ultra fine wire, that is, wire in the nature of one-thousandth of an inch in diameter or. less, serious problems exist primarily as a result of frequent breakage. With the rapid development of miniature portable radio equipment, hearing aids, and the like, and with the miniaturization of electronic components and equipment in general advancing at a fast rate, coils of extremely small size have become essential. To obtain a coil physically small in size, and yet having a large number of turns it is necessary to use ultra fine diameter wire. Heretofore there has been no apparatus capable of winding such coils satisfactorily, that is, at a high rate of speed without frequent breakage.

Enameled copper wires of diameters in the vicinity of one-thousandth of an inch and one-half a thousandthof an inch have no body or and are extremely delicafe and susceptible to breakage, therefore, the need for new apparatus to enable the satisfactory guiding, tensioning and coil winding of such wire has become apparent.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an extremely simple guide and tension apparatus that will enable coils to be wound from ultra fine wire at a high speed with practically no breakage.

Another object of this invention is to provide an apparatus that wear resistant and that can be used for a large variety of wire sizes without the need of interchanging parts.

It is a further object to provide an apparatus in which the tension of the wire can be varied at the will of an operator by means of a simple calibrated adjustment.

Further, and more specific objects and advantages and the manner in which these objects are accomplished, will be apparent in the following specification wherein reference is made to the accompanying drawings of a preferred embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 1 shows a side view, partly in section, of an apparatus embodying the invention.

FIG. 2 shows an approximate front view of the apparatus showing how it is used.

FIG. 3 is a detailed drawing showing the friction and guide tubes which constitute the major part of this invention.

FIG. 4 is a cross section taken along the lines of 4-4 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 1 shows an assembly wherein a spool or reel 3 of wire 4 is set upon a pin 5 which is mounted at an angle to the horizontal to loosely retain the reel in position. A cylindrical protector 6 covers the reel of wire 3, protecting it from dust and foreign material, and is made of a transparent plastic material, or the like, in order that the operator may readily see the amount of wire which remains on the reel. Protector 6 also serves to enable the wire to be removed from the reel 3 more evenly, since it helps to retain the wire on the spool by preventing the formation of large loops of loose wire as the end of the wire is being withdrawn. Both the pin 5 and the cover 6 are secured to an angle member 7, one leg ofwhich is adjustably connected to a support bar 8 so that its position can be adjusted as necessary. Suitable slots in bar 8 and bolts and wing nuts can be used to accomplish this. Approximately in axial align-. ment with pin 5 is tube 1 which has one end open and is formed of glass or other suitable material. One end of tube 1 is connected to a dial 9. The entire tube is mounted in mounting member 10 which permits tube 1 to be rotated but does not permit axial movement.

A knurled set screw 11 may be provided in mounting member 10, in order that the tube may be locked after it has been set to a desired angular position.

In the wall of tube 1, there appears an opening 20 being substantially circular and having a diameter approximately equal to one-fourth of the diameter of the tube.

Mounting member 10 has, extending from one end, a pointer v12 which is carried to. the surface of dial 9. Dial 9 has graduated markings upon its face, and in conjunction with pointer 12, the angular adjustment of tube 1 may be made with a high degree of precision.

Disposed at approximately a right angle to tube 1, is tube 2. As best shown in FIG. 4, the central longitudinal axes of both tubes do not lie in a common plane, but instead, the tubes must be displaced so that a vertical tangent at one side of tube 1 corresponds approximately with the longitudinal centerline of tube 2.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, tube 1 should also be disposed in relation to tube 2 so that neither vertical tangent of opening 20 falls within the inside diameter of tube 2.

Tube -2 is rigidly secured to a portion of mounting member 10, and thereby tubes 1 and 2 are connected together, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

Tube 2 is rigidly secured in an opening in support bar 8 by means of cement, or other suitable means, as shown in cross section in FIG. 1. Tube 2 is also of glass or other suitable material and is of substantially the same diameter as tube 1, specifically, about one quarter inch outside diameter and three-sixteenths of an inch inside diameter. Tube 2 has one end open and has the other end drawn to a taper having a considerably thinner wall thickness, and which has a relatively small diameter opening in the general vicinity of 0.080 inch in diameter as generally shown in FIG. 4.

All of the ends of the tubes 1 and 2, as well as the opening 20, are fused and have rounded, smooth corners and edges, and are entirely free of abrasive surfaces.

Wire 4 is led from a spool or reel 3, into the open end of tube 1, and thence out of tube '1 through opening 20; then the wire is conducted around tube 1 and into the open end of tube 2, and out of tube 2 through the restricted opening. From tube 2, the wire is directed to an arbor or chuck 13, FIG. 2, whose axis is transverse to the longitudinal axis of tube 2, but lying in a common plane therewith.

A coil form or bobbin 14 is connected to the chuck 13, and the wire is led directly thereto for winding thereupon.

Support bar 8 is connected to an upright member 15 whose bottom end is connected to a clamp 16. Clamp 16 in turn is secured to a transverse bar 17, shown in FIG. ,2, the longitudinal axis of which is parallel to the longitudinal axis of the arbor or chuck 13 and the coil 14 upon which the wire is to be wound. By suitable drive mechanism generally designated as 18, and which does not constitute a part of this invention, transverse bar 17, through cam 19 is caused to reciprocate along its longitudinal axis in timed relation to the speed at which drive mechanism 18 rotates arbor or chuck 13. The stroke or amplitude of reciprocal movement of bar 17. is equal to the length of the coil to be wound. The timing of each cycle of reciprocal motion should be re* lated to the speed of rotation of the arbor, so that one layer of wire will be formed upon the coil with each stroke of the bar. Thereby, it will be seen that uniform layers of wire will be formed upon the coil bobbin.

The tapered end of tube 2, with its restricted opening serves as a very accurate guide which directs the wire to the coil surface at an exact position, thereby enabling the formation of uniform flat layers of windings upon the bobbin; IIt can be seen that by means of adjustment of dial 9, the amount of surface of tube 1, over which wire 4 must pass can be varied, and hence the amount of back tension is adjusted.

With the particular embodiment of this invention described herein, wire ranging in size from considerably less than one-thousandth of an inch in diameter up to size of twenty-thousandths of an inch in diameter can be readily handled with equal facility and success. No interchangeability of parts is required. The particular dimensions stated heretofore are not critical, and therefore, it is not intended that this invention should be limited thereby.

Adjustment dial 9 may be provided with markings to designate grams of tension, or they may merely be uniform calibrations to be used for relative adjustment.

When reference is made to tubes in the preceding description of a preferred embodiment of this invention, it is to be understood that equivalent elements, not necessarily cylindrical in form, could be substituted, with equal success.

With the use of the apparatus disclosed herein, coils of ultra fine diameter wire may be wound at the customary rates of speed. That is'fto say, it is not necessary that the speed of winding be reduced below that which is customarily used in the winding of coils of average size wire. It is not necessary to slow down the rate of production to obtain a breakage-free performance and high degree of success through the use of this invention.

What is claimed is:

l. A tension and guide apparatus comprising a tubular member being open at one end and having an opening in the wall thereof, means mounting said member for rotational adjustment of the same, and a second tubular member disposed transversely to said first mentioned tubular member, the plane containing the axis of said second member and located at right angles to the axis of said first member intersecting the first member at a location spaced from said opening in the wall thereof, and having one end open and the other end converging to a reduced orifice to permit the passage of wire therethrough.

2. In an apparatus for handling wire from a spool, a wire guide and tension device, comprising: an elongated open ended tube having a wall with a generally right cylindrical inner surface and an aperture in said wall, the wire from said spool passing axially through the interior of said tube, out through the aperture and extending over the outer surface of said tube; means mounting said tube for rotation; and a second tube arranged generally at right angle to the first tube, the axis of said second tube being generally tangential to the surface of the first tube and spaced lengthwise of the first tube from said aperture, the wire extending around the outer surface of the first tube between said aperture and the second tube.

7 References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

